The post Case Study: Can a Few Relevant Links Boost a Low Traffic Site? appeared first on Online Ownership. This is a small-scale case study with no control group involved. The aim of the test was to see if a small number of links from relevant sites and pages can impact rankings and traffic of a page with a low volume of traffic and low competition terms. Experiment Start: October 2019 Experiment End: June 2020 Relevant Links: 4 Domain: .com.au Impact on Rankings: None Impact on Traffic: None On the site-wide level, there appears to be a boost on the 1st of April correlating with a known algo ..read more

The post GMB Free Websites Used for Spam & Google Cant Remove appeared first on Online Ownership. Spammers always find new way to spam and their latest stomping ground are the free websites provided by Google My Business for businesses without a website. The only problem is that Google My Business cannot remove these spam websites and are asking users to report these websites to Google – wait what?   Google My Business Spam Websites In June 2017 Google My Business launched their single page mobile friendly websites for small businesses directly created and integrate with a Google My B ..read more

The post Hotel Pack Shake Up Provides New Opportunities for Hotels in 2021 appeared first on Online Ownership. A new change with Google My Business is providing hotels with great opportunities to have their hotel appear within the Hotel Pack (local pack) for content (website mentions) found on the hotels website. This feature within the local pack for all other categories is not new and has been around for some time, but now hotels can benefit and take advantage of this.   Hotel Pack Shake Up First noticed on the 4th Feb and is appearing more and more within search queries as this rolls o ..read more

The post Restaurant Warning – Touch 2 Success – Ownership Requests for Business Listings appeared first on Online Ownership. This is not the first time I have been seeing unsolicited ownership requests coming from Touch 2 Success, but there has been a large spike in restaurant ownership requests from this company.   What To Do:   1. Deny the Ownership Request You should deny the ownership request as soon as it comes through. Click » View Request » Deny   They use a variety of sequenced email addresses: seo11@touch2success.co.uk seo17@touch2success.co.uk seo22@touch2success.co.u ..read more

The post Best Local SEO Consultancy – UK – Winner appeared first on Online Ownership. Online Ownership has been named Best Local SEO Consultancy – UK In the 2020 Midlands Enterprise Awards. What a great way to end what has become a year to forget.   Midlands Enterprise Awards 2020   Now in its fourth year, the Midlands Enterprise programme continues to recognise SMEs of all sizes across the region who are endeavouring to bettering business in their respective industries. SME News prides itself on the validity of its awards and winners. The awards are given solely on merit and are awa ..read more

The post First Observations of Local Service Ads in UK – (Not Great) appeared first on Online Ownership. So Local Service Ads (Google Guaranteed) are up and running in the UK now and my first observations are not great at all! Note: This is the first roll out, so things may improve.   Expectations vs Reality on Local Service Ads Local Service Ads were initially intended to reduce spam businesses operating in Google My Business. As with anything where revenue is involved, these core principles have eroded over time, as we have seen in the US and quite shockingly already in the UK. Revenue ..read more

The post Local Service Ads (Google Guaranteed) Being Displayed in UK Search Results appeared first on Online Ownership. Local Service Ads (Google Guaranteed) are finally being displayed in UK search results. Its been a long time coming:   Attempted On Boarding in 2018 Updated Ads Documentation in Sept 2020 Officially Opens End of Sept 2020   Quick Recap on Local Service Ads (Google Guaranteed) First and foremost these are still Ads – you pay per Lead (Phone Call) – not a click on an Ad Local Service Ads are a separate Ad Unit that appears above the local pack, listing service area ..read more

The post Dubai Postcard Verification Issues for Google My Business appeared first on Online Ownership. Businesses trying to verify their Google My Business Listing in Dubai / UAE typically experience issues with the delivery of verification postcard because businesses mainly use PO Boxes instead of physical address for mail. Google My Business did test a PO Box section for UAE / Dubai businesses, however this has been removed due to unreliable authentication of business and misuse. Note: I have successfully used postcard verification for hundreds of businesses within Dubai’s CBD – postcards th ..read more

The post Search Point UK – Interview appeared first on Online Ownership. You may never have heard of Search Point UK, but this company quietly helps thousands of small businesses manage their Google My Business listings and Google presence. As Local SEO’s we typically deal with businesses that have a website, active on social media and have a basic understanding of local search results. But what about those SMB’s that run successful businesses, are good at what they do but don’t have the time to manage or learn about GMB? They know they need it, but want someone to do it for them. This is the ..read more

The post Hotel Schema Examples appeared first on Online Ownership. Hotel Schema is a set of data that enables hotels and other related hospitality websites to embed structured data onto their sites pages, which allows search engines to clearly understand the information being presented to them. Search engines already understand your site and the information you provide, what schema allows a hotel to do, is to filter out the noise from other information. For example: A hotel may have several phone numbers on their pages ( head office, reservations, restaurant, spa, wedding coordinator ) by mark ..read more